tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692Thu, 07 Mar 2024 04:35:25 +0000ObamaHealth Care ReformPresident Obamaeconomic policyHerbert Hoovereconomic crisisjobsracismstate of the unionObama administrationSarah PalinTrue Reformgreat depressionhealth reformjob lossjobs crisispolicypublic optionspineless DemocratsAFL-CIOAHIPAHIP SingersAuto industryBush policyCongressional stupidityDemocracyDemocratic ConventionDemocratsDetroitFollyGlobal WarmingGreenpeaceGreenwaldJames BaldwinJeremiah WrightJohn LewisKilling the Public OptionMarket stupidityMassachusettsMcCainMcCain policyMichiganMoving forwardOrwellPDAPaul KrugmanProgressive DemocratsRooseveltScott BrownSpeechTim RussertTruth-tellingWeiner BillWolf Blitzeractivismbetrayalcrash of 1929creative advocacydefining challengedepressiondespaireconomic recoveryempireend of hopefacade of reformfailurefalse patriotismfear-mongeringfiscal policyheads in sandhistoryimperial overreachleadershiploss of hopemarket fundamentalismmediamedia complexobfuscationpatriotismpolicybustingpresidential leadershipprogressive agendaprogressive leadershipprogressive policyprotestresponsibility of political leaderssecond great depressionsolutionssowing seeds of hatredstupid white menterrorismtorturevisionwarweaknessSince policymaking in a democracy should be controlled by citizens--not corporations--POLICYBUSTERS is dedicated to developing a democratic framework of engaged policymaking that breaks down the walls between citizens and their ability to determine the policies that govern them. Citizen control over the policymaking process is the heart of democratic self-government. Let's work together to reforge public policies that will allow us to live up to our democratic ideals.http://policybusters.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)Blogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-4391883950631650909Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:39:00 +00002010-01-31T16:54:03.322-05:00economic crisiseconomic policyHerbert HooverjobsObamaWill President Obama follow the path of Herbert Hoover or Franklin D. Roosevelt in his attempt to lead the nation to economic recovery? That is the question that still remains to be answered, after his State of the Union Address.Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, had the following to say about the Obama administration’s proposal to ‘freeze’ overall non-defense http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2010/01/spending-freeze-could-worsen.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-8087694108425442943Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:17:00 +00002010-01-31T14:40:44.002-05:00depressioneconomic crisiseconomic policyeconomic recoveryjobsjobs crisisFive-Point Plan for U.S. Recovery: American Jobs PlanIn addition to the AFL-CIO, the Economic Policy Institute has a similar Five-Point Plan, backed up by research to support each of its key points for moving the U.S. Economy into a Path to real recovery--The United States is experiencing its worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression. Nearly 16 million Americans—our family, friends, and http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2010/01/five-point-plan-to-put-us-on-path-out.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-3729868351297055664Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:05:00 +00002010-01-31T13:55:57.482-05:00AFL-CIOeconomic crisisjob lossjobsjobs crisissolutionsIn order to keep the U.S. from following the path of Herbert Hoover into another depression, the AFL-CIO offers a clear path to a real jobs and national recovery, rather than just a corporate recovery.We hope President Obama will follow this clear path to recovery, since anything less robust than this will be likely to repeat the mistakes of Hoover during the early 1930s, and of the Japanese http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2010/01/clear-path-toward-dealing-with-jobs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-1217220994526577209Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:06:00 +00002010-01-31T13:22:01.292-05:00economic policygreat depressionjob lossMichigansecond great depressionstate of the unionMichigan Indefinitely Delays 200 Road & Bridge Projects Lansing Associated Press writer KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN just posted a report, which NPR picked up, that underlines the reasons we may still be on the path to a second great depression.And unless President Obama and Congress develop a quick and aggressive response to this economic reality in Michigan and many other states, he will be http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2010/01/one-big-reason-pres-obamas-approach-to.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-4670606930041383936Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:30:00 +00002010-01-27T21:33:13.310-05:00President ObamaSpeechstate of the unionMadame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans: Our Constitution declares that from time to time, the President shall give to Congress information about the state of our union. For two hundred and twenty years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty. They have done so during periods of prosperity and tranquility. And they have done so in http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2010/01/president-obamas-state-of-union-address.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-6157858496885676597Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:06:00 +00002010-01-27T21:12:43.235-05:00DemocratsleadershipObamaprogressive agendaprogressive leadershipstate of the unionvision"What happened here tonight can happen all over America." So stated the new Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown last week after his election night takeover of Ted Kennedy’s seat. If the somnambulant Democratic Party leadership wants to avoid the fate of having Scott Brown’s prediction come true, President Obama and the Democratic leadership need to engage a fundamental transformation of strategy.http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2010/01/toward-sustainable-state-of-union-what.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-5596921035183767720Wed, 20 Jan 2010 07:03:00 +00002010-01-20T02:14:37.368-05:00Herbert HooverMassachusettsObamaRooseveltScott Brownspineless DemocratsAfter his victory Tuesday night, Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts summed up the nightmare scenario for Democrats in 2010: “What happened here tonight can happen all over America.”This loss of Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat to a Republican for the first time since the 1950s does more to underline the fundamental consequence of Democrat’s sleepwalking approach through 2009 than any additional wordshttp://policybusters.blogspot.com/2010/01/to-pres-obama-democrats-have-you-will.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-324510989920867572Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:24:00 +00002009-12-17T02:20:19.371-05:00despairhealth reformloss of hopePresident ObamaTrue ReformweaknessFrom the beginning of his Presidency, unfortunately, President Obama has seemed to lack a clear appreciation for history. And now this lack of historical vision is haunting his bad judgments regarding Health Care Reform legislation. Instead of recognizing that weak middle-of-the-road Democratic politics had already died (twice over) in the elections of 2000 and 2004, he seems to be treating his http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2009/12/president-obama-no-longer-seems-to-get.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-5269833522754041186Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:10:00 +00002009-12-14T21:39:48.287-05:00betrayalend of hopefailureHealth Care Reformspineless DemocratsWell, here we go again with a spineless Democratic party and President-- Our election of President Obama to lead a stronger and more assertive progressive Democratic party that would fight on behalf of the real needs of the American people seems to be completely collapsing under the onslaught of big money and big Private Health Insurance, and everything big except a real willingness to fight forhttp://policybusters.blogspot.com/2009/12/spineless-democrats-no-meaningful.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-2872498597109470872Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:50:00 +00002009-10-25T22:35:54.378-04:00empireGreenwaldHealth Care Reformhistoryimperial overreachpublic optionwarAnd if our current political leadership, under the Obama administration, does not soon reverse the tragic course of many decades of thinking that culminated in the disastrous imperial escapade of the Bush administration--if our current political leadership does not soon reject the corrupt mentality of imperial overreach that has brought our nation to the brink of internal collapse--we will http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2009/10/for-washingtons-imperial-elite-health.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-4633602584133666370Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:23:00 +00002009-10-25T00:22:36.915-04:00AHIPAHIP Singerscreative advocacyhealth reformKilling the Public Optionpolicybustingprotestpublic optionThe large popular movement of support for the public option seems finally to be forcing Democratic Senators to recover from their insurance industry-dictated stupor.In defiance of all the corporate media prognosticators and pundits who had called the public option dead months ago, this people's reform movement has insisted that anything less than a public option would constitute a fundamental http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2009/10/killing-public-option-ahip-singers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-4200757426425414319Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:36:00 +00002009-10-03T18:26:11.485-04:00defining challengefacade of reformHealth Care ReformObama administrationTrue ReformSince my last post, President Obama has begun to demonstrate how he can play a pivotal leadership role in the defining struggle over health care reform. His inspiring and reinvigorating speech to the nation and the Joint Session of Congress on September 9 emphasized the value and need for a public option to bring health care spending under control. For any Health Care Reform bill that fails to http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2009/10/defining-challenge-for-obama.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-4622307679754182455Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:35:00 +00002009-08-19T04:02:45.785-04:00DemocracyFollyHealth Care ReformPresident ObamaWeiner BillNow that the Obama administration has gotten itself lost in the forest of its own naive search for bipartisan agreement on a Health Reform plan that Republicans never had any intention of supporting, the Administration appears to be retreating directly into the open hands of the Private Insurance lobby, which will be delighted to see Obama promoting a private "reform" plan that forces tens of http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2009/08/health-care-reform-follies-obama.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-7185650960134035378Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:52:00 +00002009-07-22T21:57:14.792-04:00activismGlobal WarmingGreenpeacePresident Obamapresidential leadershiphttp://policybusters.blogspot.com/2009/07/we-need-global-warming-leadership-now.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-2190290614982288809Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:00:00 +00002009-04-25T13:01:07.503-04:00heads in sandMoving forwardObama administrationobfuscationPaul Krugmanresponsibility of political leaderstortureTruth-tellingContrary to the eternal obfuscations of politicians who would like to claim otherwise, Truth-telling about the Past directly serves the present and future needs of democratic government and policymaking for any Nation that wants to move forward after a period when its traditions of laws and democratic accountability have been betrayed and broken. In a brief but eloquent editorial in yesterday's http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2009/04/krugman-refutes-idea-that-seeking-truth.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-2480360357485327673Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:36:00 +00002008-12-12T08:57:13.344-05:00The vote of the Senate Republicans against the auto bill yesterday can mean only one thing: After being so happy to give the wealthy financial class whatever they wanted in bailouts (hundreds of billions of dollars) for the last several months, they have refused to give workers and manufacturers--who actually make real products for the US economy--even a small $14 billion loan to survive for thehttp://policybusters.blogspot.com/2008/12/senate-republicans-declare-war-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-5742006897914635069Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:43:00 +00002008-11-19T03:51:29.256-05:00It's amazing to see how quickly the policies of Hoover that produced the last great Depression have returned in full force to rule the ongoing decisions at Treasury and among most of the Republicans in Congress. For a little bit, we fell into the stupid hope/delusion of thinking that finally Bush, Bernanke, and Paulson had discovered historical wisdom and learned something from the past. We http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2008/11/hoover-returns-to-washington-supporting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-4754634644092792854Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:14:00 +00002008-11-16T16:21:48.152-05:00Auto industryCongressional stupidityDetroitmarket fundamentalismMarket stupiditypolicyThe most stupid ideas in the world continue to be peddled by free market ideologues who are suggesting that the best thing we can do for the American car industry and our economy is allow the Detroit manufacturers to go bankrupt.After the most dramatic evidence since the 1930s of the total failure of free market fundamentalist ideology—the belief that the market should be allowed to do whatever http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2008/11/most-stupid-idea-in-world-allow-us-auto.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-7479618535564003125Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:18:00 +00002008-11-15T20:03:31.345-05:00From The Great Crisis of 2008:Bush & Co. can still do great damage to our nation's economy and seriously cripple its potential for recovery under an Obama administration, as Naomi Klein has argued this weekend (at the Miami Book Fair) in her excellent discussion (broadcast on BookTV) of the way the Bush administration is using the "shock" of the current financial crisis and the "bailout" to http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2008/11/stop-bushs-pillage-of-us-treasury-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-1935107871928823135Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:18:00 +00002008-10-14T02:35:49.635-04:00fear-mongeringJohn LewisMcCainOrwellracismSarah Palinsowing seeds of hatredterrorismFrom TURNING POINT--The URGENCY OF NOW:If anything else was needed as evidence that McCain and Palin seem utterly incapable of recognizing the dangers of the passions they are stirring up through the fear-mongering message of their campaign, the last week of terrorist-baiting language from the McCain campaign--even to the point of provoking hate-filled questions and howls from their own audienceshttp://policybusters.blogspot.com/2008/10/mccain-denies-validity-of-john-lewiss.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-4934716930384017686Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:21:00 +00002008-10-04T17:32:41.140-04:00Bush policycrash of 1929economic policyfiscal policygreat depressionHerbert HooverMcCain policySarah PalinFrom Great Crisis of 2008:This past week, as the financial system teetered on the verge of collapse because of the Republicans' anti-government, anti-regulation, anti-tax laissez-faire ideology, we were offered the spectacle of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin underlining the irrationality of this Republican ideology by arguing that raising taxes on the wealthy would be both unpatriotic and http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2008/10/who-will-pay-bills-for-iraq-war-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-8602554776422766399Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:32:00 +00002008-09-26T11:42:54.031-04:00The utter chaos of Congressional leadership in dealing with the current financial crisis (which parallels so much of what happened in 1929), along with the failure of clear Presidential leadership, seems to have placed us all on a ship of state called the Titanic. Under the direction of House Republicans, who appear to have taken control of the ship in Washington (without any knowledge of how tohttp://policybusters.blogspot.com/2008/09/are-we-on-board-ship-of-state-called.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-2467423835810721263Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:25:00 +00002008-09-26T11:45:04.330-04:00Have the self-destructive tendencies of an unrestrained capitalist financial/political system finally pushed the system into fundamental meltdown? (Or, Is Imperial Over-reach and systemic financial corruption forcing the United States to follow the path of the Soviet Union in the 1980s?) And if so, what will emerge from the ashes?From The Great Crisis of 2008:We seem to be watching a http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2008/09/onward-to-great-crash-of-2008-will-free.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-3800475990599046565Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:07:00 +00002008-09-21T15:34:31.550-04:00Former Labor Secretary (under Clinton) Robert Reich has posted 3 excellent posts on his blog providing key perspective and suggestions for responding to the current crisis:We tell poor nations they have to make their financial markets transparent before capital will flow to them. Now it's our turn. Lacking adequate regulation or oversight, our financial markets have become a snare and a delusion.http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2008/09/robert-reichs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11276692.post-5140280046024753045Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:11:00 +00002008-09-21T12:26:58.714-04:00So this week, as the financial system is on the verge of collapse because of the Republicans' anti-government, anti-regulation, anti-tax laissez-faire ideology, we have the spectacle of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin underlining the irrationality of this Republican ideology by stating that raising taxes on the wealthy would be both unpatriotic and harmful.According to the Republican logic of http://policybusters.blogspot.com/2008/09/if-taxation-is-unpatriotic-says-palin.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Satyagraha)0